Exodus Journey - (5) Trials and Perseverance

Exodus 15:21 - 18, 33-40

We are reading the Exodus journey for Lent, the 40 days before Easter which mirror Jesus’s 40 days spent in the Wilderness tempted by Satan and the 40 years it took the Israelites to travel from Egypt to the Promised Land.

Timeline of the Journey
17/3 - Slavery - Exodus 1-7:7
24/3 - Deliverance - Exodus 7:8 - 13
31/3 - Baptism - Exodus 14 - 15:21
14/4 - Holiness - Exodus 19-32
19/4 - Trials and Perseverance - Exodus 15:21 - 18, 33-40
21/4 - Promised Land / Resurrection Sunday

Last week we stopped in our journey at Mt Sinai and encountered the Holiness of God. The Lord descended on to the top of Mt Sinai in thick cloud, fire and smoke and we saw the photographic evidence of the blackened top of the mountain.

The Law is comprised of the 10 Commandments plus all the others amounting to 613 laws in the Torah 😊 When Israel Folau quoted scripture listing who would not inherit the Kingdom of God, probably each one of us could identify with at least one of the sinners on the list. Someone commented Heaven will be an empty place if that’s the case.

For some the Holiness of God makes them run back into the darkness. But we will press on in our journey to the Promised Land.

In case you didn’t know, the Lord does not promise your life will be easier when you become a Christian. In fact, following Jesus will lead to your Garden of Gethsemane and your Cross. You may find yourself asking “Why?

Going a little farther, he fell to the ground and prayed that if possible the hour might pass from him. “Abba, Father,” he said, “everything is possible for you. Take this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will.” 
Mark 14:35-36

Let your will be done. These are perhaps the hardest words to say when we face the biggest trials of life. While we are in control it is easy to be at peace but when life is turned upside down, the Promised Land can seem like it was merely a mirage in the desert.

Why was James able to say ?
Dear brothers, is your life full of difficulties and temptations? Then be happy, for when the way is rough, your patience has a chance to grow. So let it grow, and don’t try to squirm out of your problems. For when your patience is finally in full bloom, then you will be ready for anything, strong in character, full and complete. 
James 1:2-4

When something bad happens, the Bible teaches us that God is working for our good and calls us to trust Him;
And God, in his mighty power, will make sure that you get there safely to receive it because you are trusting him. It will be yours in that coming last day for all to see. So be truly glad! There is wonderful joy ahead, even though the going is rough for a while down here. These trials are only to test your faith, to see whether or not it is strong and pure. It is being tested as fire tests gold and purifies it—and your faith is far more precious to God than mere gold; so if your faith remains strong after being tried in the test tube of fiery trials, it will bring you much praise and glory and honor on the day of his return. 
1 Peter 1:5-7

Happy endings. We all long for them. But life down here is often not like that. Exodus stops short of the 40 year hard slog through the desert. The ending in Exodus has various descriptions of things the Israelites made under God’s instruction that reflected the beauty of Heaven. Amongst it is a description of something the High Priest wore on the chest of his ephod. It was a very beautiful and valuable square design, reminiscent in fact of the materials used in the Heavenly City described in the book of Revelation but obviously with only the earthly materials that the Israelites had taken out of Egypt. It reflects the hope of Heaven that we carry in our hearts.

there were four rows of stones across it. In the first row were a sardius, a topaz, and a carbuncle; in the second row were an emerald, a sapphire, and a diamond. In the third row were a jacinth, an agate, and an amethyst. In the fourth row, a beryl, an onyx, and a jasper—all set in gold filigree. The stones were engraved like a seal, with the names of the twelve tribes of Israel. 
Exodus 39:10-14

The city itself was pure, transparent gold like glass! The wall was made of jasper, and was built on twelve layers of foundation stones inlaid with gems: the first layer with jasper; the second with sapphire; the third with chalcedony; the fourth with emerald; the fifth with sardonyx; the sixth layer with sardus; the seventh with chrysolite; the eighth with beryl; the ninth with topaz; the tenth with chrysoprase; the eleventh with jacinth; the twelfth with amethyst.
Revelation 21:18

We can’t always see in the darkest of times that the Lord is weaving something of great beauty into the fabric of our lives. He is clothing us with something beautiful.

"Something beautiful, something good 
All my confusion he understood 
All I had to offer him was brokenness and strife 
But he made something beautiful out of my life."

Everyone was expecting the Messiah to come and rescue them from the Romans. No-one expected that the hero of the story, Jesus, who had only just entered Jerusalem as King as the crowds cheered would be crucified just a few days later at the Passover. And then after his Resurrection would ascend to Heaven leaving the Church to battle through 2 Millenia so far of persecution, trials and temptations before he will finally return. It is exactly as Daniel foretold it would be;

“Know and understand this: From the time the word goes out to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until the Anointed One, the ruler, comes, there will be seven ‘sevens,’ and sixty-two ‘sevens.’ It will be rebuilt with streets and a trench, but in times of trouble. After the sixty-two ‘sevens,’ the Anointed One will be put to death and will have nothing. The people of the ruler who will come will destroy the city and the sanctuary. The end will come like a flood: War will continue until the end, and desolations have been decreed. 
Daniel 9:25-26

How is it then that we can endure such sadness, trials and temptations during our lifetimes as we wait for Jesus to return ?

We have to hold on to our final hope that we are not at the end of our story yet and not try to short circuit God’s plan for us by going off down our own way of escape. After Jesus was baptised he was led by the Holy Spirit into the desert for 40 days to be tempted by Satan but he remained perfectly obedient to God. The Israelites were led into the desert but were there 40 years because they grumbled and complained and tested the Lord’s patience.

The purpose of the trials in the desert is so that we will grow in patience more ready to be used by God. He has a great purpose in mind for each one of us. And we are heading for the Promised Land.

In our Red Sea moments of greatest triumph, we can’t anticipate trials ahead even though we realistically should. The athlete spends 99% of his time training and 1% of his time running and winning the Olympic Gold Medal. The majority of life is spent battling for not celebrating victory. It is during these times of trial that God is most able to shape our character. We should rejoice more in the trials than we do.

But to obtain these gifts, you need more than faith; you must also work hard to be good, and even that is not enough. For then you must learn to know God better and discover what he wants you to do. Next, learn to put aside your own desires so that you will become patient and godly, gladly letting God have his way with you. This will make possible the next step, which is for you to enjoy other people and to like them, and finally you will grow to love them deeply. The more you go on in this way, the more you will grow strong spiritually and become fruitful and useful to our Lord Jesus Christ. But anyone who fails to go after these additions to faith is blind indeed, or at least very shortsighted and has forgotten that God delivered him from the old life of sin so that now he can live a strong, good life for the Lord. So, dear brothers, work hard to prove that you really are among those God has called and chosen, and then you will never stumble or fall away. And God will open wide the gates of heaven for you to enter into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
2 Peter 1:5-11

And so after all the victories in Jesus Life and Ministry, he arrives at those final 24 hours of his life in great agony. In the sorrow and hope of that final Communion. At Gethsemane as midnight approached, in the early hours of his trial and condemnation under Pilate, the flogging and finally to be brutally nailed to the Cross, Christ was in mental and physical agony in those final hours of his life.

In the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus really suffered sweating blood. It hurts a lot when people you love betray you, reject you, don’t believe you. They all deserted Jesus leaving him totally alone, just like he promised would happen to us. This is an ignored promise of God. Sometimes God goes silent and we need to have faith in the hardest of times.

Gethsemane means oil press. There at Gethsemane, they took the olives from the Mount of Olives and crushed them to produce olive oil. The amount of pressure that Jesus felt, that caused his body to sweat blood was releasing oil for all future generations to help us in our darkest times.

But in the literal and spiritual darkness at the Cross, Jesus was triumphing over Satan.

You were dead in sins, and your sinful desires were not yet cut away. Then he gave you a share in the very life of Christ, for he forgave all your sins, and blotted out the charges proved against you, the list of his commandments which you had not obeyed. He took this list of sins and destroyed it by nailing it to Christ’s cross. In this way God took away Satan’s power to accuse you of sin, and God openly displayed to the whole world Christ’s triumph at the cross where your sins were all taken away. 
Colossians 2:13-15

This is the message of the Gospel. God is the one on the Cross not us. And since God himself has paid the price, what is left to debate after that. Satan has nothing left.

Our faith and Christ’s righteousness. I mentioned my brothers accident last week. Colin had a real faith, he loved Jesus but he also had his struggles which were ultimately what killed him. As I wrestled with that in the few days after he died, I realised that it is not our righteousness that saves us, it is Christ’s. You must have faith and be born again to be saved but no one’s life is perfect. You will never be good enough under the law. Everyone needs the righteousness of Christ and it is the 2 together that saves us (our faith, his righteousness). That is the sure and certain hope that we have and why I now know that Colin is at peace with God.

The temptations in the desert were a step along the way to resisting the Devil at Gethsemane. The Garden of Gethsemane was the preparation for Calvary. Jesus faced his greatest fears in private in prayer. The disciples meanwhile fell asleep when they needed to be praying. Jesus told them to pray lest they fall in temptation. But they didn’t prepare and so they deserted him when the crucial moment arrived. If you want to know how you will face a disaster, consider your prayer life. As for me, this is a major change that is required. I am unprepared liked the disciples in Gethsemane.

In a short period of less than 24 hours, all the disciples hopes of a glorious future were in ashes in apparent defeat, but Jesus was delivering the ultimate surprise victory over all the powers of darkness.

Trials turned to Gold
When we are suffering trials and temptations we can draw strength from Christ;
If you want to keep from becoming fainthearted and weary, think about his patience as sinful men did such terrible things to him. After all, you have never yet struggled against sin and temptation until you sweat great drops of blood. 
Hebrews 12:3-4

When we look at the churches in New Zealand today we see messy church, not a triumphant church. We are a little like the tribes of Israel, with a great history and future but we are a bit of a mess without a common direction.

Anglicans, Presbyterians, Methodists, Catholics, Pentecostals, Baptists, Brethren, Orthodox, Salvation Army, Seventh Day Adventists, Pacific Island, Independents...

If we are to win this war, the tribes must come together and go in the same direction to the Promised Land. If one pulls off, the others get dragged around in circles in the desert while the enemies of God sit on the hills laughing at us.

Only the Lord can do it.

It’s been some Lent this year. There were the shootings in Christchurch. The wedding and funeral of my brother. This week I awoke to the terrible news that the Notre Dame was in flames. Yesterday, the eve of Good Friday, Mhairi heard of changes at work that mean she will probably finish there in the next 3 months. During the week, I recalled the words of Jesus;
“All right,” Jesus replied, “this is the miracle I will do for you: Destroy this sanctuary and in three days I will raise it up!” John 2:19

Jesus can raise a man and even nations from the dead this Easter. Our greatest trial can be turned into it's greatest triumph if we will trust the Lord.

Finally a song that dares us to believe during our darkest times...